


Your Face is Not Your Fortune

by NightReaderEnigma



Series: Jaime and Brienne Week 2019 [4]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Angst, Attempt at Humor, F/M, Jaime & Brienne's Wedding, Jaime/Brienne Appreciation Week, Jealousy, POV Cersei Lannister, Past Cersei Lannister/Jaime Lannister, Speeches, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-11-22 18:04:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20878442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightReaderEnigma/pseuds/NightReaderEnigma
Summary: A Stand-Alone One Shot written for the Day 4 Prompt  "A Character Gives a Speech at Jaime and Brienne's Wedding"Cersei's POV as she makes a speech at Jaime & Brienne's Wedding.You know that guest everyone wishes they didn't invite who gets drunk and makes an idiot of themselves?Cue Cersei!





	Your Face is Not Your Fortune

**Author's Note:**

> So for this prompt I had to do a lot of thinking. I could have gone with the funny or fun characters but instead I decided to take a leap of faith and delve into the twisted brain of Cersei.  
What can I say? I kind of enjoyed imagining her dumbfounded misery as she watches Jaime marry the love of his life. 
> 
> I separated this from my other fics as Cersei has no place amidst my Jaime & Brienne happiness! lol

“And that concludes the speeches!” Tyrion grinned, somewhat maniacally she thought. Though he always did have that unhinged quality.  
It was detrimental that the others just couldn’t see it, why they even went and named the wretched little creature Hand. It made her shake her head in disbelief.  
_Westeros will fall into wreck and ruin – then they’ll know I was right. They will wish for me again, their Light of the West, but then it will be too late.___  
It was a burden to always be correct. Observing what the lackwits around her did not. _This whole wedding….._

It made her stomach churn, noxious acid broiling in her gut. Her vision scanned the scope of the long table, from the coarse sellsword to the dim squire, then to the heinous little imp chatting to the tall greying Lord - who was exceedingly proud for no good reason. His only claim to nobility was a rock in the narrow sea and producing what just may be the largest eyesore of an heir to ever be afflicted through matrimony upon an unsuspecting House.  
_I do not belong here – I am sitting in a sideshow.___  
None hammered home the sentiment moreso than the bride. Less a Lady on her wedding day and more a sow, wrapped in layers of garnish and ready for the roasting.  
Her twin must have lost his mind – or his vision.  
Jaime laughed and smiled with the aurochs, as if everyone else was invisible. _But I am not, and it will do well to remind him….._

____ She stood in her place, scarlet sleeves billowing as elegantly as ever. Golden curls cascading down her shoulders.  
Her crown may be gone but she could still embody a Queen in every essence. Her bejewelled rings clinked against her goblet as she raised her glass and head.  
“Oh Tyrion – little brother. You have been derelict in your duties. You conclude the speeches already but I have gone seemingly overlooked.”  
A smirk twitched at the corners of her mouth as the revellers went ashen. _Good I have their attention._  
“Tsk-tsk, you certainly had too much upon your plate, organising this-“ Her hand waved encompassing the room as her brain struggled to find the word. _Farce? Fiasco?_  
“-wedding.” She coughed twice, almost choking on the word and took a sip of her wine to allow time for the slight to sink in. “Isn’t it fortunate that I am here to prompt your recollection?”__

__ ____ All eyes in the room were trained on her, a collective holding their breath and she thrilled to once again have every soul in the palm of her hand.  
Tightening her fingers around the goblet, she searched the myriad of gawkers for the only pair of eyes which mattered. Emerald orbs which mirrored her own.  
He sat at the head of the table, the beast beside him laying a steadying hand on his arm. _Well she means it to appear affectionate, but I know better. It is possessive – she is threatened by me and for good reason…._

____ “What can I say about my sweet brother? My twin.” She spoke directly to Jaime, the only person other than her of significance.  
Somehow he found himself stuck in this room, tied to that creature. Distanced from his other-half.  
“I have known Jaime his whole life, from the moment we first drew breath. Why he came into this world holding my foot – many of you don’t know that.”  
Her mind retreated back a distance, to a time when they were two halves of one whole and a nostalgic melancholia unknowingly entered her tone. “We were inseparable once, an unstoppable force, joined almost at the hip. I was there for every milestone, every right of passage….. every first…. _**Everything….**_”_****_  
She savoured the horror around the room as she emphasised the word. “…. We experienced together.”  
Giggling despite herself she sipped her wine and conspiratorially added. “You all thought I was actually going to say it didn’t you?” 

A low tone reached her ears, the bride so large and manly she clearly didn’t realise how much her voice carried. The hulking brute rubbed Jaime’s forearm, pressing her forehead to his temple and calmly murmuring. “It is alright my love, find tolerance. She is clearly hurting…..”  
_Pity! Pity from such as she!_ It was like a spear to her dignified gut. 

Not to be dissuaded, she set her jaw and changed tact.  
“It is often we would be asked. “What is it like to be Tywin Lannister’s golden twins?” His pride and joy, his glory and triumph.”  
She looked purposely down at the ground, pretending to peer through the floorboards to the Seven Hells beyond.  
“Greeting’s Father. What do you make of this atrocity? Hmmm. Probably spinning in your crypt.”  
She laughed at her own jape and continued. “But the truthful answer is one we never gave. Yes, we are deliciously good-looking, the desire of all who behold us. Richer beyond the wildest dreams of lowborn scum. However we were also besieged by expectation and demands. Carrying the weight of our legacy upon our shoulders. The things we do for duty!”  
Smirking at Jaime in reference to their in-house joke, she gestured wildly with her goblet, its contents sloshing over the sides and she was glad she possessed the foresight to wear crimson so stains would not be visible.  
“Look at me! The epitome of beauty and desire, married off to some brutish boar – I was far more than he ever deserved, could ever have hoped for had he not possessed a crown to adorn his oafish head. But I was not enough! He whored constantly fathering bastards left and right. Yet I am judged! Made to walk the streets in shame. Condemned for wanting more!” Her wine befuddled brain couldn’t make sense of it, as she drained her cup and held it out to be refilled.  
The servers warily stepping forward and then hastily retreating, leaving her with her captive audience.

_********___ Jaime’s brow creased in confusion as he visibly sighed, clearly wondering where she was going with this.  
His repugnant new wife had draped an arm around his broad shoulders and he gripped her hand where it came to rest.  
Touching, connecting – for reasons this lioness could not begin to fathom.  
“Here I am! The embodiment of womanhood, the personification of femininity.” Her face contorted into a twisted scowl of its own accord.  
“But I am forsaken, betrayed as though the entire realm and everyone in it has lost their wits along with their good taste!”  
She swayed in place as she pointed at her other-half and his new wife, trembling with fury and disbelief. “When over there is the single most unattractive woman most of us have ever had the displeasure of encountering. Monstrous, scarred, even the abomination who tried to eat her took one bite and thought better of it. She – and of her gender I’m not even certain – is positively hideous. Yet here she sits, as a bride nonetheless, held close by my brother, my –“  
Her voice began to grow faint. “What is it Jaime? Is it revenge? Is it a punishment? Is it one final thwart to our Father? Make me understand why?  
Why her? You didn’t have to marry now. Nobody was forcing you… why choose her above everyone else? Above me?” 

Jaime worked his jaw, anger and compassion warring across his handsome face.  
“You know why Cersei.” He finally said. “That is why you are acting like this. Drinking too much. Making a scene. Taking aim at my wife. Trying to spoil our happiness.”  
The golden lion shook his head. “But you won’t succeed sister. Never again will you taint or corrupt my joy and as a final act of brotherly caring I would have tried to shield you from the pain of hearing me say the words. But you insist upon it – so here goes.”  
He took a deep breath. “I love her Cersei. Brienne is my light, my guiding star and my everything. With her I am the man whom I always longed to be. To her I am enough, flaws and scars do not matter. Brienne loves me for what I am and does not resent me for what I lack. She asks nothing of me which she would not ask of herself. When I look upon my wife I am transported to a place beyond the pettiness, grievances and machinations to which I’ve always been exposed. She calms me, comforts me and makes me feel worthy – something I have never felt in my entire life. It has never been about looks or appearances. Beauty is only skin deep. When the tides turn or the lights go out, it is not comely features which save you, nurture you, encourage you to go on. It is the person within, my Brienne, my woman – and when I look upon her with the perspective of a man in love I could never see her as anything but beautiful.” Cersei wanted to deny his speech, call it out as a public show, a dramatic display of falsehoods for the benefit of the onlookers, but the tears which glistened in his eyes spoke to his truth and it shook her to the core.  
“I intend to spend the rest of my life loving Brienne. Living up to the faith and devout adoration which she has placed in me. Trying to be the man who is deserving of her incredible heart. I’m sorry if that hurts you sister – but you need to let me go.” 

Cersei felt her knees buckle, later she would blame the entire incident on the wine.  
Saying it was tainted, someone must have slipped her a unique variety of poison which made her act in irrational ways.  
There was a history of such behaviour at weddings.  
But as she found herself in a curled heap of crimson and samite upon the floorboards, the teardrops which fell to the polished surface below felt incredibly genuine. 

Strong hands touched her lightly on the shoulders, easing her up and offering her comfort.  
_I knew it must all be lies – my Jaime has come to me._  
She lifted her face to greet him and instead was met with eyes of sapphire blue. “Are you alright good-sister?”  
It gnawed at Cersei to admit that in the enquiry there was no pretence or gloating, just kindness and concern.  
The mule of a woman, picked up the fallen goblet, handing the former Queen a linen napkin to dry her eyes.  
“I understand.” The new Lady Lannister’s deep voice whispered to her. “I would hate to lose him too.” 


End file.
